CGI Cyber Escape Room heading to London

Cyber risk is one of the 2022 top global risks and insurance megatrends, as outlined in my “Predictions for 2022” article.?Attacks are increasing in severity and frequency while cyber insurance is more expensive and harder to buy.?Most other commentators agree with us.?“Business versus a world of unchecked cyber threats” is a headline by Control Risks at a recent IUA Market Briefing.

2021 was the year when “ransomware” entered popular vocabulary and we experienced destructive attacks on critical infrastructure.?The attacks on Colonial Pipeline Co., JBS meat packing, or Ireland's Health Service brought cyber risk to many people’s doorsteps.?At the same time supply-chain attacks on Solar Winds or Microsoft Exchange Server brought to light how big the common-cause risks might be. ?Not surprisingly all reinsurers reduced their aggregate limits during 2021. ?For an average business cyber insurance is now more difficult to buy with reducing limits, new sub-limits for ransomware, and vastly increased price.

You might be thinking we would have a quiet start to 2022...?sadly not! As I write this article, the US White House is holding a summit with all top tech companies to discuss open-source security in the aftermath of the extremely serious "Log4j vulnerability", discovered during December 2021.?So far, the attack on the Belgian Defence Ministry was the only known serious one, however by one estimate the Log4j library is used within half the world web pages!

The US White House summit includes Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, IBM, Microsoft, Apache, Oracle, GitHub, and Linux, meeting with departments of Commerce, Defence, Energy, and Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).?

Log4j is just the tip of the iceberg – it highlights the global issue of security of open-source code.?Over several decades billions of lines of open-source code were written and are now hidden somewhere within IT stacks of nearly all companies and government agencies across the globe.?The Apache Software Foundation, which manages Log4j, is run by volunteers, who have several hundred open source projects and oversee 227 million lines of code.?

Turning back to Control Risks: ?“In 2022, escalating cyber threats globally become a matter of survival for organisations. For businesses, ownership of the defence against these threats is brutally clear: they are on their own. States are failing to deter aggressive behaviour as offensive cyber capabilities proliferate among growing numbers of state and non -state actors. Added to this is the rapidly advancing trend of collaboration between states and cybercriminals in a number of jurisdictions. These growing disruptive capabilities are being matched by the expanding attack surface presented by a rapidly digitalizing world. With insurers questioning the viability of covering disruptive cyber events, businesses are looking at a world where ownership of cyber risk is unclear. It is paramount that organisations focus: eyes on the future with an agile security stance. Failure to adequately prepare your organisation to detect, prevent and respond to cyber -attacks will have existential consequences in 2022.”

A rather alarming situational analysis, wouldn't you say?

At CGI, cyber security is a key service to our clients and a top area of expertise.?We strongly believe that cyber security is not just about the “latest patch”, it is importantly about human behaviour.?CGI’s mantra is that good cyber security starts with every employee and doesn’t stop until the CEO and the board.?That’s why we have built a unique hands-on training environment – the CGI Cyber Escape Room Experience CGI Cyber Escape

All our clients have benefited from their staff improving their cyber security skills through the CGI Cyber Escape Room.?In one notable instance a head of cyber security at a large organisation did indeed get locked in by the hackers!

In partnership with the Insurance Institute of London and the Chartered Insurance Institute we are making the CGI Cyber Escape Room available to London insurance professionals during 7-11 Feb at the London Olympic Stadium in Stratford.?If you are a member of the CII, please watch out for bookings information through the IIL.?Otherwise please contact me directly.

Do you have what it takes to beat the Cyber Escape experience?